GenCon 2011 – the Good, Part 1

Frankly, I had a really great Con overall. Here is my Good, Bad, and Ugly list in no particular order.

GOODHalf Price Books – This is the second year Half Price Books was at the Con. A great addition and I think they do very well – their booth was always packed. I was very happy to find several fantasy anthologies edited by Lin Carter back in the day called ‘World’s Best Fantasy Stories’ and ‘Flashing Blades’ respectively. They were always a great source for pulp fantasy. Have always looked for them and was very happy to find a bunch at the Con for $2.00 apiece.

D&D Miniatures – I was a little more in control myself this year than in years past. Sorta, kinda. Bought around 5-7. One thing I found interesting, according to a vendor at one of the booths, the cost for rares are remaining roughly the same, or are going down, but the cost of the commons and uncommons are going up. People are looking for bulk. Oh, and just as I thought my miniatures obsession was winding down, Paizo announced a new miniatures line and HeroClix is coming out with a 28mm line of Lord of the Rings minis. *sigh*

Vornheim – Have glanced through this, already like a lot of what I’ve read, though there are also ideas that are WAY out there.

WEGs – I’m reading through this now. A lot to like. I’ll have more info when I’m done.

Mouseguard/Okko – Archaia had a buy one get one free deal for a number of their graphic novel titles. I’ve been wanting to get the first Mouseguard and the second Okko for quite some time so I was very happy to see this deal. Have already read Okko – the story is somewhat disjointed – but I really liked it overall.

The quick answer is ‘maybe’. Each character type has cards that allow you to do maneuvers when you play them. Also, each character has a number of skill points (or ‘spoints’) that power certain abilities and maneuvers. ‘Spoints’ are represented by poker chips which you play – spoints are limited so you have to be careful how many you play. So it might translate to a good swashbuckling system. We’ll have to test.

So far, I do have one criticism of the game. It tries way too hard to be ‘wacky’. Old school is spelled ‘old skool’, skill points are ‘spoints’, a round is an ‘inning’ (really? a baseball term?). I don’t mind a little humor in my games, but I can do without the general level of silliness in WEGs. That said, I think I really like the underlying system.